After Huxley there must be Komarek...
1988: I read parts of Brave New World for the first time. Because of our English teacher those without any sex. Hard to find...
2013: I read the whole book. It is indeed brilliant, except maybe the shift from Bernard Marx to the Savage as the central figure. The dystopia is indeed stronger than the story line. The final dialogue between Mustapha Mond and John is really fascinating, disturbing and makes you wonder about mankind and society. What is the price that we pay for stability?
2300: I will (most probably) be dead. At least in the form that I inhabit now. This Blog will (hopefully) be banned. We will live in a... oh bugger I am a bad science-fiction writer. I say, it will be different from today.
and now I am reading Alfred Komarek's "Die Villen der Frau Hürsch", very Austrian, very slow, and not very dystopian, with a hint of Schnaps and Schweinsbraten between all the pages...it is like listening to folk music after free jazz and still we walk the same planet, and somehow miss the Bauernbergpark Man, whose brave new world seems to be somewhere else now.
Monday, 16 September 2013
Tuesday, 10 September 2013
Brave New World
To be able to understand modern myths like test tube babes or Bokanovsky processes, I have decided to read Brave New World again. Accompanied by Captain Beefheart's "Trust Us" as soundtrack, I try to write down my impressions after the first half of the book.
Unfortunately, he got some things right, one of the true prophets. While Orwell's Big Brother has just recently made the news (NSA), Huxley's consumerism is around for a while. We throw away food in enormous quantities, buy Asian shit textiles and are too lazy to repair stuff. Globalization is something, that Aldous didn't like too much. We on the other hand still live in these savage national states. What's better?
The amazing thing about his novel is the dystopian aspect just slightly before Hitler and the Nazis left their mark on the world, proving that there is more than one dystopia.
But what can we learn from Huxley without being reactionist bastards? Now we have got IVF and Dolly. We got synthetic biology and stem cell research.
Somehow this huge electric fence around some places starts to make sense. But to protect which side?
OK. Huxley didn't get the h-bomb and the world wide web, but be aware when his book was written.
It is indeed a classic.
We want everything clean and sterile and we want to be happy all the time. This, my friends, will never work out in this world.
Calmness and peace of mind, yes, but endless joy: no. And I am only talking about individuals. It is the same with society. So forget all the utilitarian promises and wisdom. I recommend other ways.
But enough for today.
The Bauernbergpark Man is still missing. He has completely disappeared. He was my personal savage and shaman, to whom I was too frightened to talk. Maybe I will never have the chance again to do that.
What a brave new world.
Unfortunately, he got some things right, one of the true prophets. While Orwell's Big Brother has just recently made the news (NSA), Huxley's consumerism is around for a while. We throw away food in enormous quantities, buy Asian shit textiles and are too lazy to repair stuff. Globalization is something, that Aldous didn't like too much. We on the other hand still live in these savage national states. What's better?
The amazing thing about his novel is the dystopian aspect just slightly before Hitler and the Nazis left their mark on the world, proving that there is more than one dystopia.
But what can we learn from Huxley without being reactionist bastards? Now we have got IVF and Dolly. We got synthetic biology and stem cell research.
Somehow this huge electric fence around some places starts to make sense. But to protect which side?
OK. Huxley didn't get the h-bomb and the world wide web, but be aware when his book was written.
It is indeed a classic.
We want everything clean and sterile and we want to be happy all the time. This, my friends, will never work out in this world.
Calmness and peace of mind, yes, but endless joy: no. And I am only talking about individuals. It is the same with society. So forget all the utilitarian promises and wisdom. I recommend other ways.
But enough for today.
The Bauernbergpark Man is still missing. He has completely disappeared. He was my personal savage and shaman, to whom I was too frightened to talk. Maybe I will never have the chance again to do that.
What a brave new world.
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